Although the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam failed to make a big impact in the Lok Sabha elections, it played the spoiler for the AIADMK in the Chidambaram (Reserved) Lok Sabha constituency.
This was the only seat in the central region where the party appeared to have impacted the final outcome as Viduthualai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader Thol. Thirumavalavan scraped through by a margin of 3,219 votes over this nearest AIADMK rival P. Chandrasekar.
While Mr. Thirumavalavan polled 5,00,229 votes accounting for 43.38 % of the votes polled, Mr. Chandrasekar got 4,97,010 votes (43.1%).
A. Elavarasan of the AMMK secured 62,308 votes (5.4%) and he had drawn voters from all the six Assembly segments.
Naam Tamizhar Katchi candidate M. Sivajothi polled 37,471 votes (3.25%) and the Makkal Needhi Maiam’s (MNM) T. Ravi bagged 15,334 votes (1.33%).
No impact
However, the AMMK does not seem to have impacted much the final outcome in other constituencies in the central region as most of the DMK-front candidates won by a huge margin over the AIADMK combine.
“I am surprised by the huge margin of victory in my constituency. The electorate had received us well and we were expecting 200-250 votes per booth. We had the organisational set up and we reached out to voters better. This is unbelievable,” said an AMMK candidate in the central region.
In Tiruchi, where the party candidate Sarubala R. Tondaiman, who was expected to put up a stiff challenge to the main contenders, cornered 1,00,818 votes (9.62%) which was not enough as Su. Thirunavukkarasar won by a margin of 4.50 lakh votes. V. Vinoth (NTK) with 65,286 votes and the MNM’s A. Anandharaja with 42,134 votes accounted for more than 10% of the votes. Yet, Mr. Thirunavukkarasar managed a huge win.
AMMK candidate in Thanjavur Lok Sabha constituency P. Murugesan netted 1,02,871 votes (9.71%).
But in Karur, where S. Jothimani of the Congress won by a big margin, P.S.N. Thangavel of AMMK got 2.82% vote share.
In the Assembly byelection, AMMK candidates along with the NTK and MNM caused a split in votes.
In Thanjavur, AMMK candidate M. Rengasamy polled 19,639 votes and in Tiruvarur S. Kamaraj got 19,133 votes.
But in Aravakurichi, P.H. Shahul Hameed managed only 7,217 votes.
